German President arrives today for two-day working visit

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be in Singapore for a working visit today and tomorrow, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday.

This is his first trip to Asia since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and he will be heading to Indonesia after Singapore. The ministry said Dr Steinmeier's visit reflects the strong ties between Singapore and Germany as longstanding and like-minded partners.

This is his second visit to Singapore as the German president. His first was in 2017. President Halimah Yacob made a state visit to Germany in December 2019.

During his visit, Dr Steinmeier will pay a courtesy call on President Halimah, who will host a lunch. He will also meet Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, in his capacity as Acting Prime Minister.

Mr Wong is Acting PM this week while Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is on leave.

Dr Steinmeier will also meet Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, and attend a roundtable discussion with business representatives and Transport Minister and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S. Iswaran.

He will be accompanied by German Federal Foreign Office Minister of State Anna Luhrmann, parliamentarians, senior officials and business representatives.

His schedule in the next two days includes a visit to TUM Asia, the first subsidiary of the Technical University Munich (TUM) that was founded in 2002 here.

TUM is one of Europe's leading technical universities.

Dr Steinmeier will also meet students of the German European School Singapore, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.